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Vancouver city council has refused to hold a non-binding referendum on banning whales and dolphins in captivity at Vancouver Aquarium.

Instead, it punted the issue back to the city’s park board, saying the elected body has sole jurisdiction for the keeping of animals on park property.

City councillors also severely castigated Green party Coun. Adriane Carr for trying to get the plebiscite motion on to the Nov. 15 civic election ballot, saying she was effectively usurping the authority of her elected park board colleagues.

The decision came at the end of a long meeting Wednesday in which a handful of activists opposed to the aquarium’s captive cetacean program told city councillors that residents deserve the right to vote.

It follows the recent call from two park board commissioners, Sarah Blyth and Constance Barnes, for the aquarium to phase out its beluga whale program and to stop captive breeding. Mayor Gregor Robertson also stated publicly that he believes whales and dolphins shouldn’t be kept captive.

But in this case, city council was strongly reluctant to tread into the park board’s jurisdiction, especially after the board on Monday instructed its staff to prepare a report by July on the aquarium’s operations and how other aquariums operate their captive cetacean programs.

Robertson was not in council for the debate.

Coun. Andrea Reimer, chair of the city’s planning committee, derailed Carr’s plans after she obtained a legal opinion from the city that council cannot discuss issues that are solely the jurisdiction of the park board, including the propriety of keeping cetaceans in captivity. The only thing council could discuss was whether or not it could institute a plebiscite on a ballot.

But with the park board already in the middle of a review, and with it not specifically asking council for a plebiscite question, Carr was off base, Reimer said.

John Nightingale, the aquarium’s chief executive officer, told city council his organization supports the park board’s review.

“We think the fact-finding it embodies is vital to proper consideration of the issue by government,” he said.

Keeping beluga whales in captivity at the aquarium serves a higher purpose, especially with the rapidly-changing climactic conditions in the Arctic, he said. The aquarium is in the middle of a $100-million upgrade that has already been approved by council.

“These whales and the environment they live in is vitally important to Canada and to Canadians. With the loss of ice, increased pollution in the St. Lawrence and many other factors, it is not the time to stop learning from these animals,” he said. “It is time to actually get on with it.”

But the aquarium’s opponents, many of whom have campaigned against it for decades, said that is misguided thinking.

“The aquarium needs to learn that there are no ideal cetaceans to be kept in captivity,” said longtime activist Janos Mate. “The embedded suffering of captivity cancels out all the aquarium’s arguments for maintaining and expanding the cetacean captivity program.”

Annelise Sorg, president of No Whales In Captivity, said the city held a similar referendum once before on whether the Stanley Park Zoo should be closed, and voters decided it should be.

“The Vancouver Aquarium obviously didn’t get the message,” she said. “We believe it is time to do the same with the aquarium.”

Before voting Carr’s motion down, several of the Vision Vancouver councillors took a run at her.

“This was really inappropriate bringing it here. It is the heavy hand of government being brought here,” said Coun. Tim Stevenson. “This body of council has been very careful as long as I have been here to respect the autonomy of park board.”

Carr said later she believes her council colleagues failed to show leadership on an issue voters are interested in.

“I am not off base. The rest of council is off base. In my opinion they are afraid to take this on,” she said.

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Vancouver refuses non-binding referendum on whales in captivity

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